We will be celebrating Purim this year on Friday in Yerushalayim and many people want guidelines as to what we should do.

There are 3 approaches of when to eat the Purim Seudah (meal)

1- Start the meal before chatzot (midday) in the morning and finish before Shabbat out of Kevod Shabbat. This is the ideal approach acc to most opinions.(Rema)

2- Start the meal 3 hours before sunset, after mincha or at least before shkiyah (sunset),finish before Shabbat and leave an appetite for the Friday night meal. (Maharil)

3- Eat the meal as part of the Friday night meal (‘Pores Mapah UmKadesh’)

Guidelines for this 3rd option of, ‘Pores Mapah UmKadesh’:

Daven Mincha before the Seudah, and begin the Purim Seudah an hour or so before Shabbat. Bring in Shabbat 30 minutes before sunset by lighting candles and daven at least Kabbalat Shabbat.

After sunset bring the Challah to the table and cover them. Make Kiddush, however, without the bracha of Borei Pri Hagafen as that bracha was already said during the Purim Seudah. After Kiddush, continue with the meal and you must eat a Betzah or at least a minimum of a Kzayit of bread for the Shabbat meal.

In benching – we say Retzey and Al Hannisim as part of the Harachaman.If you davened Maariv before the Shabbat Seudah, you CAN’T recite Al Hannisim in benching. If you only said Kabbalat Shabbat and NOT Maariv, then you can say Retzey and Al Hanissim.

After benching, one who did not daven Maariv during the meal after Kabalat Shabbat should daven Maariv.

Note: Make sure you don’t have mukzeh things on you, like a phone or wallet.

Firstly, as far as I understand, the concept of, ‘Pores Mapah UmKadesh’ which is the term used to describe continuing your Friday afternoon meal into Shabbat, as discussed

in the Gemarah in the 10th Perek of Pesachim, is used to describe any Erev Shabbat and not specifically Purim going into Shabbat.

Clearly, the Gemarah is not talking about ‘Le’Chatchilah ‘, an ideal situation when you plan to continue on the meal, but rather a B’Dieved case when you didn’t realize Shabbat was coming in and had no choice. Therefore, it’s problematic to actually, consciously plan ahead to do ‘Pores Mapah UmKadesh’.

Another problem with ‘Pores Mapah UmKadesh’ – in the context of Purim on Erev Shabbat and continuing your Purim Seudah into your Friday night Shabbat meal, is in fact that the Meiri in Ketubot 8 that discusses this topic, is talking about the 14th of Adar going into the 15th of Adar and NOT the 15th of Adar going into the 16th of Adar as happens in Yerushalayim, when it is no longer Purim anywhere.

Ha’Rav Aryeh Shtern: You are supposed to have your Purim Seudah earlier on in the day like the Rama says and then have a normal Shabbat meal and not merge your Purim Seudah and Shabbat meal. It is not the accepted practice to do ‘Pores Mapah UmKadesh’ and by doing so you enter yourself into Halachik problems which is not something we chose to do.

Rav Chayim Soloveitchik from RBS: He was also against ‘Pores Mapah Um’Kadesh’ and said only applies if for whatever reason you couldn’t have a Purim Seudah earlier on in the day – if for instance you were at work or in the army.

Rav Chayim said his father (Rav Aaron Soloveitchik) and uncle (Rav YB Soloveitchik) were against it for a more conceptual reason. That is, in Halacha, we don’t confuse different days which are conceptually, inherently different. Shabbat is Shabbat and Purim is Purim. The nature of Shabbat and Purim is totally different and they have their own mitzvot and obligations.

The case for ‘Pores Mapah’:

Firstly, it is an old minhag Yerushalayim to do ‘Pores Mapah’.The Meiri did it. The Magen Avraham says it’s ok to do, as does the Maharil. Rav Zalman Nechmiyah Goldberg, quotes the Alter from Slabodka, Rav Shor who says it was permitted to do.

Rav Yaakov Katz, from the Old City says actually Le’Chatchilah – ideally, one should do ‘Pores Mapah’. Rav Yoni Rosensweig told me that the Nehar Mitzrayim supports the idea of ‘Pores Mapa’, and claims this was the Minhag in Jerusalem for many years.

Furthermore, there are Chassidish sources which say that one should in fact merge Purim and Shabbat as they complement each other.